Non-refundable

12-01-2001, by Fyodor Lukyanov , ed. Vremya Novosti

Google translation from russia:

Swedish Foreign Ministry did not understand the Soviet hints about Raoul Wallenberg

Today in Stockholm will be published so-called White Paper on the case of Raoul Wallenberg. This is the fruit of a decade of Russian and Swedish experts who have studied the circumstances of the disappearance in 1945 in Budapest, the Swedish diplomat who saved from deportation to death camps thousands of Hungarian Jews. Over 55 years of business Wallenberg remains one of the main irritants in relations between Moscow and Stockholm.

As announced last week the Swedish co-chairman of the joint commission, Hans Magnusson, Russian and Swedish experts have not agreed on a unified version of what happened, so each side will present its version. Russian interpretation is as follows: Raoul Wallenberg, who was arrested by Soviet troops in Hungary, was a victim of Stalinist repression and, obviously, was executed in the Lubyanka prison in July 1947. Last December, the Russian prosecutor general’s office exonerated Wallenberg. (Until 1957 the Soviet Union in general, denied that the detention Swede, then came the version that he died in prison of a heart attack in July 1947 the second.)

In the Swedish report focuses on the fact that no conclusive evidence of Wallenberg’s death in 1947 is still there, and thus make such a conclusion impossible. In other words, the Swedes believe that there is no answer to the main question: what really happened to Wallenberg.

The forthcoming publication of the White Paper led to a new surge of speculation about the Wallenberg case. Before New Year’s family lawyer Wallenberg Maurice Wolff sent a letter to Bill Clinton to contribute to the release (!) 88-year-old Raul, who is the lawyer, is still in Russian psychiatric hospital. As it turned out, Mr. Wolff responded to the information that the Hungarian POW Andras Toma, who spent 55 years in a Russian psychiatric hospitals, and only last summer, returned to his homeland, supposedly not long ago had seen Wallenberg. The same day Budapest doctor Tom is denied. Nevertheless, rumors that Wallenberg was still alive long after 1947, and perhaps even before the late 80’s, continue to appear. On this, referring in particular to the data of the CIA, wrote three American scientists which have developed in recent weeks, the campaign in the Swedish media.

However, the assumption of Wallenberg, « longevity » is based on circumstantial evidence and seem very improbable. Where a large Swedish public is now another topic – whether all government do to secure the release of the hero. The conservative newspaper Svenska dagbladet, which refers to sources in the Russian-Swedish commission says: In 1945-46 years, Moscow had indicated it would not mind to exchange the diplomat for several Soviet citizens who had sought asylum in Sweden. (This exchange, as it turned out, made in Switzerland in 1946, two diplomats who were arrested in conjunction with Wallenberg in Hungary. They exchanged for two Soviet pilots defecting.) If you believe a newspaper in the Russian text of the White Paper describes the behavior of the then Swedish Ambassador in Moscow Staffan Sederbluma. He had always proceeded from the fact that Wallenberg died in Budapest. Hints of the Soviet representatives – Ambassador of Sweden Kollontai to Deputy Foreign Minister Dekanozov – that the diplomat is « protected », the ambassador did not accept. The climax was his audience with Stalin July 15, 1946, before leaving Moscow. When asked about the fate of Wallenberg Generalissimo said: « You know very well that we were ordered to protect the Swedes. Sederblum said: personally he is confident that his colleague was the victim of an accident or criminals. Stalin asked: « You did not get us any information on this? ». No, replied the ambassador, he believed that the Soviet military is no information about the fate of Wallenberg.

Researchers tend to interpret the replica of Stalin as trial balloons. Faced with a lack of interest in the topic in the interlocutor, the Soviet leader apparently decided that there is no exchange of perspectives. Nevertheless, in late 1946, the Soviet Union allegedly again made it clear that he was ready to discuss the topic Wallenberg, as reported to the Swedish Embassy in Stockholm. Foreign Minister Unden Esten thought: good political and trade relations with the Soviet Union are so important that the risk of entering into controversy in the case of Wallenberg’s not worth it.About the same lines followed in subsequent years.

Swedish diplomats, and some veterans are still alive who worked at the Foreign Ministry in 40 – 50 th, do not accept the accusations. In fact, if the Swedes listen to the hints of Stalin and the Wallenberg exchanged for six Soviet sailors, deserters, who allegedly wanted to get Moscow (easy to guess their fate), from a moral point of view it would be nice. And clearly would be detrimental to all the textbooks that have become the legend of Raoul Wallenberg, the man who saved the reputation of Sweden during the Second World War.